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Synonyms: Emmotaceae Tiegh.; Iodaceae Tiegh., nom. inval.; Leptaulaceae Tiegh., nom. inval.; Pennantiaceae J. Agardh; Phytocrenaceae Arn. ex R. Br.; Pleurisanthaceae Tiegh.; Sarcostigmataceae Tiegh., nom. inval.
Common name: Icacina Family.
Number of genera 40. Number of species 258.
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule an intact or entire fruit, or an incomplete fruit with epicarp and mesocarp absent and endocarp exposed.
Fruits
Pistil(s) compound; 1; 1-pistillate; with carpels united. Fruit pericarpium; simple; drupe, or samara (rarely of authors, but not Spjut); without persistent central column; crowned by stigma; with stylar remenant(s); at apex, or at base or nearly basal; within accessory organ(s); within calyx; 1-seeded; 1-seeded; from 1–5 cm long to more than 10 cm long; 1–10 cm long; (1–)3(–5)-carpellate; with carpels united; with carpels remaining united at maturity; without sterile carpels; without fleshy lateral appendage; not sulcate; in transection terete, or compressed; apex not beaked; indehiscent. Epicarp black to purple, or brown (all shades), or blue, or red to purple, or orange, or white, or green (latter two for upper part of fruit); durable, or evanscent; glabrous (without hairs), or not glabrous (with hairs) (reversely setulose by brittle irratant hairs); hairs short; hairs widely scattered, or dense; hairs red (rusty); hairs not glandular; without armature, or with armature; with prickles (reddish-brown); without armature glochidiate; not smooth, or smooth; several to many longitudinally ribbed, or wrinkled; without wing(s), or with wing(s); 2-winged; with wing(s) lateral; without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present, or absent; fibrous, or fleshy (both equally dissolute), or thick; composed of 1 unified layer; without lactiform cavity system; and endocarp not sharply differentiated. Endocarp present; not separating from exocarp; thick, or woody, or thin, or crustaceous, or fibrous, or spongy; not splitting into 1-seeded pyrenes; stone unilocular; not smooth, or smooth; with pits, or reticulate, or rugose, or warts, or furrow(s), or wrinkles (& 1 to many ridges & 1 to 2 longitudinal grooves), or ridges; without wing; without operculum; without secretory cavities; without grooves, or with grooves; with longitudinal ridges, or without longitudinal ridges; without fracturing longitudinal ridges. Funiculus not persisting in fruit after seed shed.
Seeds
Aril absent. Seed larger than minute; ovate, or reniform, or elliptic, or obovate, or hippocrepiform; in transection terete, or compressed; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity with food reserves, or without apparent food reserves (Iodes); with endosperm; without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa present; with viscid pellicle layer, or without pellicle layer; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; tight; surface smooth, or unsmooth; surface with merged raised features, or depressed features; surface longitudinally grooved, or pitted; surface ribbed; without crease or line separating cotyledons from hypocotyl-radicle; without notch along margin where cotyledons from hypocotyl-radicle tip approach each other; without glands; without bristles; glabrous; without wings; without collar; without operculum; colored; monochrome; brown (all shades) (at least); thin; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding food reserve, or surrounding embryo. Hilum larger than punctate. Endosperm development nuclear; copious, or moderate; fleshy, or fibrous; opaque (white or yellow); smooth, or ruminate, or corrugated; with starch; without fatty acid containing cyclopropene; with apical lobes, or without apical lobes; without chlorophyll; without isodiametric faceted surface; without odor.
Embryo differentiated from food reserve; well developed; 1 per seed; completely filling testa (no food reserve) to nearly filling testa (trace or scanty food reserve); 0.2–1 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; axile and centric; foliate; with spatulate cotyledons (at least); straight, or arcuate; parallel to seed length; with cotyledons abruptly connected to hypocotyl-radicle, or gradually connected to hypocotyl-radicle; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons 2; moderately developed, or well developed; 0.8 times length of embryo (at least); 2–9 times wider than hypocotyl-radicle; not concealing hypocotyl-radicle; not foliaceous, or foliaceous; thin, or thick (rarely); flat, or much folded, or irregularly-folded, or twice-folded; smooth, or wrinkled; with apices entire; with margins separate; basally cordate, or entire; equal in size; not punctate dotted. Hypocotyl-radicle moderately developed, or well developed; straight; not thickened.
Distribution
Pantropical (with a few species in subtropics & temperate regions). New World, Old World. North America, Middle America, South America, Africa, Asia Minor, southeastern Asia, Australia, Oceania.
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
No ASOA or ISTA listed seeds.
Accepted genera
Alsodeiopsis Oliv. -- Apodytes E. Mey. ex Arn. -- Calatola Standl. -- Casimirella Hassl. -- Cassinopsis Sond. -- Chlamydocarya Baill. -- Citronella D. Don -- Dendrobangia Rusby -- Desmostachys Planch. ex Miers -- Emmotum Desv. ex Ham. -- Gonocaryum Miq. -- Hosiea Hemsl. & E. H. Wilson -- Icacina A. Juss. -- Iodes Blume -- Lavigeria Pierre -- Leptaulus Benth. -- Leretia Vell. -- Mappia Jacq., nom. cons. -- Mappianthus Hand.-Mazz. -- Merrilliodendron Kaneh. -- Miquelia Meisn., nom. cons. -- Natsiatopsis Kurz -- Natsiatum Buch.-Ham. ex Arn. -- Nothapodytes Blume -- Oecopetalum Greenm. & C. H. Thomps. -- Ottoschulzia Urb. -- Phytocrene Wall., nom. cons. -- Pittosporopsis Craib -- Platea Blume -- Pleurisanthes Baill. -- Polycephalium Engl. -- Polyporandra Becc. -- Poraqueiba Aubl. -- Pseudobotrys Moeser -- Pyrenacantha Hook. ex Wight, nom. cons. -- Rhaphiostylis Planch. ex Benth. -- Rhyticaryum Becc. -- Sarcostigma Wight & Arn. -- Stachyanthus Engl., nom. cons.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 721 (with Stemonuraceae taxa removed). Kårehed, J. 2001. Multiple origin of the tropical forest tree family Icacinaceae. Amer. J. Bot. 88:2259–2274; Sleumer, H. 1972. Icacinaceae. In: C.G.G.J. van Steenis, ed., Flora malesiana, vol. 7, pp. 1–87. Noordhoff International Publishing, Leydon.
General references
Baillon, H.E. 1866–95. Histoire des plantes, 13 vols. Hachette and Co., Paris, Corner, E.J.H. 1976. The seeds of Dicots, esp. vol. 2. Cambridge University Press, New York, Cronquist, A. 1981. An integrated system of classification of flowering plants, 1,262 p. Columbia University Press, New York, Engler, A. and K. Prantl. 1924 and onward. Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilimien. W. Engelman, Leipzig, Goldberg, A. 1986 (dicots) and 1989 (monocots). Classification, evolution, and phylogeny of the familes of Dicotyledons. Smithsonian Contr. Bot. 58 for dicots (314 pp.) and 71 for monocots (74 pp.). [Goldberg's illustrations are reproduced from older publications and these should be consulted], Gunn, C.R. and J.V. Dennis. 1976. World guide to tropical drift seeds and fruits, 240 pp. The New York Times Book Co., New York, Gunn, C.R. and C.A. Ritchie. 1988. Identification of disseminules listed in the Federal Noxious Weed Act. Techn. Bull. U.S.D.A. 1719:1–313, Gunn, C.R., J.H. Wiersema, C.A. Ritchie, and J.H. Kirkbride, Jr. 1992 and amendments. Families and genera of Spermatophytes recognized by the Agricultural Research Service. Techn. Bull. U.S.D.A. 1796:1–500, Mabberley, D.J. 1987. The plant-book, 706 p. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Roosmalen, M.G.M. van. 1985. Fruits of the Guianan flora, 483 pp. Institute of Systematic Botany, Wageningen Agricultural University. Drukkerij Veenman B.V., Wageningen, Spjut, R.W. 1994. A systematic treatment of fruit types. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 70:1–182, Steenis, C.G.G.J. van, ed. 1950 onwards. Flora Malesiana, ser. 1. Spermatophyta. Noordhoff-Kolff, Djakarta.
Illustrations
Acceptable fruti and poor seed illustrations. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or fruit incomplete, or seed, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): Roosmalen, Steenis vol. 7, Engler & Prantl, Gunn & Ritchie, Baillon. Fruit illustration(s): Gunn & Dennis. Seed illustration(s): Gunn & Ritchie. Embryo illustration(s): Engler & Prantl, Gunn & Ritchie.
• Fruit. 1 of 7. Apodytes dimidiata E. Mey. ex Bernh.: fruits. • Seed. 2 of 7. Apodytes dimidiata E. Mey. ex Bernh.: seed. • Fruit. 3 of 7. Citronella paniculata (Mart.) R. A. Howard: fruit. • Seed. 4 of 7. Citronella paniculata (Mart.) R. A. Howard: seeds. • Fruit. 5 of 7. Icacina oliviformis (Poir.) J. Raynal: fruit. • Seed. 6 of 7. Icacina oliviformis (Poir.) J. Raynal: seed. • Embryo. 7 of 7. Icacina oliviformis (Poir.) J. Raynal: embryos.
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘J.H. Kirkbride, Jr., C.R. Gunn, and M.J. Dallwitz. 2000 onwards. Family guide for fruits and seeds: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 12th April 2021. delta-intkey.com’.
